Two Sides
by Livvi18
Summary: There is always two sides to everything, a story, a coin; the moon. OK so not a very good summary but the story is good. I swear. Rated M for violence later on in story.
1. Chapter 1

It is 2am and I have to be up in less than 5 hours. 7_7

I love idea's and playing around with them. This is one of them ^ ^ Un-beta'ed so if there are any mistakes I apologise.

Obvious disclaimer: **Do not own characters! **Kishimoto does. But there will be an OC.

Will not be KakaIru despite any obvious implications throughout.

Reviewers will recieve the chocolate fudgy wudgy cookies I made ^ ^

Good night!

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 <strong>

Iruka's dark eyes narrowed at the jounin's remark; his students are not soldiers. They are still children. And how could Kakashi say that "crushing them would be fun?" Iruka felt the shift in his eyes before he could control it, struggling to keep his anger in check, but for once not really caring if anyone saw.

The Sandaime however, did. He saw Iruka's eyes change to an inky blackness and he knew that if he didn't intervene things could get ugly, quickly. "Iruka," he said. "Enough."

The young chuunin heard the words and the underlying threat and immediately his eyes went back to their telltale liquid brown. He scowled, and deciding that it would be in his best interests to leave Iruka brushed past the arrogant jounin's, paused and bowed to the Hokage then left the room.

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><p>Out of the jounin's present only Kakashi saw the way the irate chuunin's eyes had darkened. He frowned wondering, <em>some sort of blood line trait maybe? The old man obviously knows. <em> It would be safe to say that Kakashi's curiosity was slightly piqued and he decided 'for the good of Konoha' and not to satisfy his curiosity, that he would do a little intelligence gathering on the chuunin.

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><p>Iruka was angry, no, he was severely pissed off. It had been 2 days since the chuunin nominations and since then someone has been following him around; watching him, at the academy when he is teaching, when he's been training and at his own apartment. He had an idea as to who it was, and that is what has got the chuunin so pissed off.<p>

_**Why don't you invite him out to lunch or something?**_

That sudden suggestion surprised Iruka, not the fact that it was a voice in his head that only he could hear.

_And I would do that why? _The chuunin asked back.

_**Well the man is curious about us, which is why he has been following you around these past couple of days. You know that he saw me at the nominations. **_

_Yeah I suppose so. But what has asking him to lunch got to do with anything?_

_**Quite a lot actually.**_

_...Care to elaborate? _

_**Hmm, not really.**_

Iruka sighed, beginning to feel exasperated. _You are the epitome of elusive._

_**I try, **_came the witty remark.

_Alright then, why don't you tell me why I should ask him to lunch and I'll _consider _it._

_**I already told you that I won't, plus I gave you a hint. And besides if it is Kakashi that has been following you around he won't pass up the opportunity to achieve his goal.**_

_And what exactly_ is_ his goal? _Iruka asked, although he felt he knew the answer.

_**To get to know me. And that is exactly what I want.**_

_Wait, you want him to find out about you? _He asked, shocked.

The voice only chuckled.

_Why? _

_**I have my reasons.**_

_...You're incorrigible. Not going to elaborate?_

_**I feel that it will be beneficial for the three of us. **_

_I'm not even going to try to understand what you mean by that. And it doesn't answer my question._

_**Good, because otherwise your head will explode and I don't want that. **_

_Of course not, _Iruka deadpanned.

_**So will you ask him?**_

Iruka sighed. _Let me think on it._

_**Don't take too long.**_

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><p>Kakashi was frustrated. He had been tailing the chuunin for almost a week now and the man has done nothing to warrant attention. He taught the little hellions called children at the academy through the day; worked the mission's desk during the evenings; slept at night and trained in the early mornings. <em>Truly an unremarkable man, <em>the jounin thought. But he knew he _knew_ what he saw that day.

Kakashi was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the kids all screech in excitement as they were allowed out to their lunch break. He watched from his perch in the tree as Iruka closed the classroom door and walked about the room placing papers on each of the student's desks and picking up the few bits of debris that the kids had scattered around. After throwing said debris in the bin the chuunin did something that Kakashi did not expect. He walked over to the classroom window, threw it open and said rather loudly, "Alright Hatake. Get your ass in here now. We need to talk."

To say that Kakashi was shocked was an understatement. He was certain that he hid himself rather well, and had cloaked his chakra, so how the hell did Iruka know he was there? He stood up from his perch and leapt rather gracefully to the window sill.

"Maa, Iruka sensei, how did you know it was me?" He asked in a bored tone.

"...Aside from the fact that you have been stalking me all week?" The chuunin asked arms folded, clearly not happy.

"..." Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

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><p><em><strong>Ask him out to lunch baka.<strong>_

_Fine, if it will get you to shut up..._

_**Aww I'm hurt.**_

Iruka sighed and glared at the jounin. He felt a blush work its way up his cheeks as he said angrily, "If you wanted to get to know me all you had to do was ask."

He could tell by Kakashi's reaction that that was not what the older man was expecting. Still he ploughed on ahead, "Meet me at Ichiraku's tomorrow at 12:30."

The jounin was flustered, "Um..."

"Now if you will excuse me, I have a class to teach." Said Iruka promptly ending the pretty much one sided conversation.

Iruka watched in amusement as Kakashi fled out the classroom window seconds before his students filed haphazardly into the room and took their seats.

"Now that you are all back from lunch, as you can see on your desks you have this afternoons test on the topics of basic hand signs and the application of chakra." He pointedly ignored the groans, and went on. "There are 15 multiple choice questions, 3 short answer questions and one structured response question. You have 20 minutes to quickly go through the questions and the actual test will be for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once you have completed the test you are free to go. You may begin."

Aside from the rustling of paper the classroom was blessedly silent as the pre-genins started their test. Iruka sighed and his thoughts went back to the way he handled the conversation with Kakashi.

_**Conversation? You didn't let the man get a word in, then before he could accept your invitation to lunch tomorrow you promptly dismissed him. Quite rude actually.**_

_I was nervous _and_ angry with him, what did you expect? _

_**A polite, sociable conversation.**_

_...You're kidding. I find it difficult to be polite to him after the way he spoke to me at the nominations. _

_**Well you had better get your act together before 12:30 tomorrow, because you have a date with him.**_

_It's not a date! It's just lunch, and it was _your_ idea to start with._

_**Yes but you could have very well decided to not act upon **_**my **_**idea.**_

_Not like you gave me much choice._

_**True, true. Better pay attention to your students sensei, Ryu's cheating and Konohamaru's trying to escape.**_

_The quirks of being a teacher. _Iruka sarcastically replied, before drawing breath to shatter his student's eardrums.

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><p>Whoa, that was not what Kakashi was expecting. In truth he expected to be thoroughly scolded and to be told not very nicely to leave, but certainly not an invitation to lunch! Okay Iruka was a little rude but he was angry, so it was understandable. Before Kakashi could make some sort of intelligent reply he heard a babble of excited children's voices, and was out the window just moments before the door slammed back on its hinges as a prelude to a miniature stampede of pre-genin coming back from their lunch break.<p>

When Kakashi felt that he was a safe distance from the Academy he whipped out his orange bound book and buried his nose between the pages. To a casual observer he was totally engrossed in his book; to a more observant observer he was slightly engrossed in his book. But to an observer who knew the great Copy-nin well, his mind was not on the contents of the infamous Icha Icha Paradise, but was rather going a million-miles-a minute trying to decipher any hidden implications to the chuunins invitation. Not to mention the fact that said chuunin had also somehow known that he, Kakashi, a _jounin_ no less, who could mask his chakra so well that other jounin didn't know he was there, was stalking him. That fact in on itself made something not quite right about Iruka Umino.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Iruka Umino hummed quietly to himself as he walked inside his apartment, juggling a bowl of ramen from Ichiraku's in one hand while removing his boots with the other. Despite not really looking forward to lunch with Kakashi tomorrow Iruka was in a fairly good mood. It was Friday evening after all. The one day of the week that he didn't have to work at the mission desk after teaching at the academy.

He walked over to his apartment's kitchenette and placed his ramen on the bench before going to his bedroom to take off his vest and headband, unceremoniously dumping them on his bed. As he walked into the bathroom to freshen up a bit, Iruka began thinking about the Copy-nin and what he knew about him. After a few minutes of this, Iruka concluded, while walking to the kitchenette re-heating his ramen and sitting down to eat, that apart from rumours and reputation he barely knew a thing about the man. Which is no surprise, Kakashi is a rather private person. Okay, an extremely private person.

_So remind me again why you want him to know about you? _He asked.

_**Hmm, well I don't want him to know straight away of course; over time he will know.**_

_...And we know nothing about him?_

_**That's the beauty of it. As he learns about us, so will we learn about Kakashi. Win, win in my opinion. **_

_You know, I kind of feel like the third wheel that's also being kept in the dark. _

_**Boo hoo pumpkin. Live a little.**_

_I will ignore that. _He replied in a huff. _ And my life is great._

_**It's boring. Let's see, what do you do? You teach those miniature monsters at the academy; you work at the missions desk; you train; treat Naruto to Ramen; go on the occasional mission. Oh, yes your life is so fun filled it's gonna burst.**_

_Just, go away for a little while._

_**Sorry dear, can't.**_

_What if I say please?_

_**Fine, then.**_

And with that the voice was gone. Iruka sighed in relief, and started to enjoy the silence of his apartment while eating his ramen. But he knew he couldn't take it for granted, he knew that something would come along to disrupt his quiet evening, so he enjoyed it while he could.

And sure enough, he had just finished eating his ramen and cleaning up when he heard two sharp knocks at his door.

When he didn't answer straight away a deep, almost whining voice was heard, "C'mon little brother, open up. I brought something for you."

"If it is in the form of alcohol, then you can forget it Rai."

"...Um, no. It's not alcohol, I swear, and you know I'm not much of a drinker." Iruka chuckled and opened the door anyway, "sure, sure." As the door widened he espied the bottle of aged sake in his long time friend's hand. Iruka sighed in a suffering way, feeling that he would regret opening the door in the morning.

"Well, come in then."

As Raidou walked in and took off his boots, Iruka took the bottle of sake from the man's hand and set it down on the bench in the kitchenette. He walked back out to his apartments small lounge room to find Raidou sprawled on his battered couch. Iruka scowled but his voice was light, "Sure, just make yourself at home."

"Don't mind if I do." Raidou replied with a sly grin, and then his voice took on a more serious tone. "I heard that you exchanged a few, words, with Kakashi Hatake last week at the chuunin nominations; and that you almost lost control."

Iruka sighed; he was kind of hoping that Raidou wouldn't bring up that incident until a bit later. "I probably overreacted a little but you weren't there, you didn't hear the way he spoke of his students."

"Damn it Iruka! You almost let _her_ have control, simply because you couldn't keep your anger in check." Iruka's eyes widened in surprise, Raidou went on. "Yes, I know, Sandaime told me. You know how important it is that no one find out about her."

Iruka gave a hollow laugh at that. "I think it might be a little late for that, Rai- nii."

"What do you mean?"

"I think Hatake saw..."

"You _think_?"

"Uh, yeah, he's been trailing me all week; I confronted him, and I kind of invited him to lunch tomorrow."

Raidou gave an exasperated sigh, "So let me get this straight; the Copy-nin has been stalking you for the better part of a week; you catch him in the act, and invite him out to lunch?"

"Well, it wasn't _my_ idea. It was _hers_."

"Did she say why?"

"She was mum on that." Raidou hmmed. "Look Rai, I know you are only looking out for me but can you just drop it? I know you didn't come here to tell me how incredibly stupid I am. You brought sake, and you only drink when you're celebrating something. So tell me what is it?"

Raidou laughed, the mood changing considerably. "Am I that easy to read?"

Iruka laughed as well. "Rai, I have known you since I was a toddler. So yes, to me you are an open book."

Raidou laughed and just shook his head in reply.

"Well?" Iruka asked. "What is it?"

"It's Katsumi, she...I-" Raidou cut himself off and took a deep breath, before letting out an ear splitting grin. "She said yes! We're getting married!"

"Congratulations! Shit man, you have only been together for what... 8, 9 years? You pretty much are already a married couple. She's silly if she said yes." Iruka said with a smile to show he meant no offence.

Raidou growled good naturedly. "So are we gonna get into that sake or not?"

Iruka laughed, walked back to the kitchenette and set about heating the sake, once that was done he grabbed two cups and went back to the lounge room. After pouring the sake, Iruka raised his cup and said, "Here's to a life of marriage and everything that goes with it!"

When Iruka went to bed that night his head was buzzing pleasantly. He and Raidou had polished off the sake within an hour of opening it and had spent most of the evening reminiscing about the past or talking of the future. At one stage they had a good laugh about the time the two met. Iruka smiled to himself as he thought about that day.

~**flashback~**

_3 year old Iruka Umino giggled as he hid from his mother in the markets of Konoha._

_They had gone shopping for their weekly groceries and whilst his mother was haggling with a fruit vendor, Iruka had taken it upon himself to go and hide from his mother._

'_Hide and seek' was his favourite game and he loved it when he and his mother played. If she had found him she would chase him around, laughing, before plucking him from the ground and tickling him. It was really the only game they played together._

_He had taken to hiding in a barrel lying on its side near one of the meat stalls; it was just big enough for him to fit his little body inside. He saw the barrels lid on the ground and scooted half out to grab it, as he wriggled back inside he half fitted the lid back in place. The perfect hiding place. Iruka giggled again as he heard his mother call out to him, but then held his pudgy hands to his lips to hush himself. _

_He was so preoccupied with hiding from his mother that Iruka didn't hear the crunch of sandals near his hiding place. A young male voice suddenly called out, "Hoy, Goro-san?" _

"_What is it?" came the gruff reply from not too far away._

"_I found another one of them barrels. Do you want me to take it up to th-?"_

"_Yes, yes. Just hurry up about it would you? The meat won't sell itself." _

_Little Iruka heard a shuffling sound coming from the lid of the barrel, when suddenly, _thock!_ The lid was sealed on the barrel with him still inside! He felt a little disoriented as the barrel was lifted off the ground and started to swing slightly. Where were they going? He didn't know that voice. He started to feel frightened, so much in fact, that he could not even make a sound._

_The man didn't even know that he was inside the barrel! _

"_Excuse me?" Iruka heard a new voice, this one sounded quite young, maybe a boy? The swinging motion of the barrel stopped._

"_Can I help you with something shinobi-san?" That was the first voice; the voice carrying Iruka's barrel. _

"_You might want to take a look at the contents of that barrel before you take it to its destination." Iruka nodded his head, agreeing with that young polite voice. He started to like that voice. _

"_What do you mean ki- I mean shinobi-san?" That first voice started to sound a little irritated._

"_What I mean is; place that barrel on the ground, open the lid and take a look inside." _

_Iruka heard the first voice grumble as the barrel was lowered to the ground. Then he heard fingers fumbling with the lid when it was removed and he was momentarily blinded by the bright light. He blinked owlishly, and that first voice exclaimed, "What the fuck! The hell you think you're doing in there little kid?" _

_Iruka flinched and tried to huddle deeper in the barrel, suddenly feeling that it was the safest place to be. He tightly closed his eyes and shook his head. _

"_There's no need to yell, he's only a small child. He probably didn't know any better." It was the polite voice again. Bravely Iruka opened his eyes to look at the source of that voice; he was met with kind brown eyes over a large genuine smile. It also had brown spiky hair and skin the same colour as his. Tentatively Iruka smiled back until he saw another much larger figure. This one had black hair and an angry red face. Iruka decided that he didn't like that one. "Well, kid?" It asked. "What were you doing in there?" _

_Once again Iruka didn't answer. _

"_Come on out little one its ok; we'll go find your mother. Alright?" The nice one said. Iruka nodded his head and held out his arms to be lifted out of the barrel. Once Iruka was out and on his own two feet the nice one knelt down and said, "I'm Raidou. It's ok if you don't want to tell me your name. Were gonna go for a walk and see if we can find your mother." _

_Iruka nodded again and took Raidou's hand, completely forgetting about the angry red-faced man. Suddenly feeling brave Iruka tugged on Raidou's hand. The youth looked down and asked with a smile, "What is it little one?"_

"'_Ruka," Iruka said. "M name's 'Ruka." _

**end flashback~**

Iruka smiled at that memory as sleep slowly took him. Since that day he and Raidou became close and over the years had started to call each other brothers. There was not a secret about themselves that the other did not know about.

Raidou was there when _**she**_ came along, not long after Iruka's parent's deaths. When he had plucked up the courage to tell Raidou about her, he had expected Raidou to react disbelievingly or even violently. He did neither. He listened and then walked over and hugged Iruka and said, "No matter what, you will always be my little brother."

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><p>AN: Chapter's a bit of a filler but necessary. Next chapter, lunch with Kakashi.

Please R&R


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